Doctor Who: The Complete Fourth Series (DVD review – extras only).
As with other earlier new ‘Doctor Who’ seasons, I’ve already reviewed the episodes when they first appeared on TV, so the focus on these DVD sets is the extras.
With the Christmas episode, ‘Voyage Of The Damned’, I did wonder about their choices for the audio commentary: composer Murray Gold, actor Russell Tovey and first assistant director Peter Bennett. Tovey admits he barely looked at the new series before accepting the role, mostly driven by him working with actor Geoffrey Palmer for a day. He also saw none of the main sets, being stuck mostly alone on the bridge with other people, including Peter Bennett, supplying the reply voices. Speaking of which, there were 40 extras on the dance floor with three stunt people for the explosion. David Tennant and Kylie Minogue did their own stunts. Bennett is handier because, as first assistant director, his job is to schedule the time used on each set. The snow in the final scene was made of foam that could be washed away at the end.
The extras on disc #1 are interesting. The first, running at 8 minutes, is ‘Children In Need – Time Crashes’ and really ought to be watched before the main episode, as the current Doctor and the fourth Doctor (actor Peter Davison) meet when the TARDIS’ shield collapses near a black hole. It’s also pointed out how much the latest Doctor borrowed from him, although I thought the trainers came much later.
‘David Tennant’s Video Diary’ goes back to 2007 and a trip to Blackpool to turn on the lights and running into traffic jams on the motorway. As Tennant is needed there, the Blackpool mayor arranges for a police escort to accomplish that. Producer Julie Gardner, also in the car, clearly has her day made. I have to wonder why they just didn’t use the TARDIS. Blackpool was very windy, and 20,000 people were there, and a Dalek was also on the platform.
The Deleted Scenes, running at 2½ minutes, was introduced by Russell R. Davies, explaining why they were taken out.
The audio commentary for ‘Partners In Crime’ is with executive producer Julie Gardner, director James Strong and scriptwriter Russell T Davies. The latter admits he was running late on two scripts, and to give director Colin Teague more time on the Pompeii episode and Strong being available, he directed this episode. There was also a move towards more comedy reinforced by higher viewing figures. Davies describes the Alpose as being crowd monsters, something that they didn’t do, although I would question that when regarding the Daleks, Cybermen and Sontarans, amongst others. Russell T points out a problem of Miss Foster sonicking one wire on the washing carriage and the wrong one further down. Considering Gardner, or even me, come to that, didn’t spot it shows how we go along with the action. Davies says they could fix it ten years later with CGI but obviously haven’t here. Even so, I would have thought the cheapest way would be to flop one of the two scenes. It isn’t as though they have fringes.
In retrospect and with what we now know, should we discount these odd ghostly appearances of Rose Tyler as possibly the future Doctor fulfilling some events in the past?
The second story, ‘The Fires Of Pompeii’, has an audio commentary by actors David Tennant and Catherine Tate with production manager Tracie Simpson. Tennant points out the importance of the number of ‘i’s differing in ‘Pompeii’ or is it ‘Pompei’? Simpson, at the time, had moved on from ‘Doctor Who’, and looking her up, it was a promotion, but she still continued to visit Bad Wolf. Here, she was responsible for filming exteriors in Rome and who could go. Other places used were Clearwell Caves and two quarries.
The third story, ‘Planet Of The Ood’, has an audio commentary with director Graeme Harper and actor Roger Griffiths, who played General Kess. I’d love to know how people were selected for these commentaries. Nothing wrong with Griffiths, who went on to bigger things, but he’s awfully low in the cast list here. Harper gives a lot more insight into directing. After the yuletide special, this episode was the first filmed, mostly because the script was ready. When you join the dots from the Russell T Davies commentaries, it puts things into perspective. He also identifies the places used for filming, which I was tempted to print here but assumed the Who websites would have noted anyway. The cement factory also had an aspect which was also giving off a lot of heat. Oh, the Circle telepathic song was performed by contra-tenors.
The extras on the disc include the deleted scenes and an additional 7 minutes dedicated to the ‘Howard Attfield Deleted Scenes’, in which actor Bernard Cribbins stepped in as Donna Noble’s grandfather, Wilf Mott, after Howard Attfield’s passing. Frankly, I’m surprised they didn’t keep all but the last scene in and have Wilf explain her father died happy seeing her in the blue box.
The third disc has a two-part story, and I decided to watch it in its entirety before focusing on the audio commentary. For the fourth story, ‘The Sontaran Stratagem’, we have executive producer Julie Gardner with actor Dan Starkey, who played Commander Skorr, and prosthetics designer Neill Gorton, who put him in his make-up. Both of the latter are real fanboys and get trapped watching the story from time to time. Gardner complains they hadn’t been sent disc copies of the episode to watch first, but later it is also revealed that this commentary was recorded before transmission, so it would have been bound to have been treated as gold and a treasonable offence.
Gorton’s description of the make-up application and keeping up with the spare masks kept his team hard at work. There were ten Sontarans and only two unmasked heads to make in the seven-day schedule. Gardner points out that the UNIT truck HQ certainly looked larger inside than out. From my own observation, that appears to be a tradition; look at the ‘Knight Rider’ semi. Oh, and Catherine Tate thought the Sontarans were robots until their helmets came off. Another ‘oh’ for when the BBC used to go off-world and use real aliens back in the early days.
For the fifth story, ‘The Poison Sky’, the audio commentary is with actor David Tennant, showrunner Russell T Davies and executive producer Susie Ligget, who was just about to take over from Phil Collinson. Notably, they were filmed the week before the episode aired, and they were filming the Christmas episode and regeneration in 2007. Ligget also points out that the articulated lorry UNIT headquarters interior was only one foot longer and eight inches wider and puts it down to the camera lens lengthening it. She’s probably right. If you’ve ever seen your own town on TV, you might notice that the distortion can make familiar places appear unfamiliar. It works less with known landmarks, since your eye can adjust to what it is focusing on.
They also mention that actors are generally kind in real life, which made me wonder whether they would ever choose an actor with a bad reputation or simply filter them out if they made a poor choice. Of course, most British actors tend to be pleasant, but more so those who play villains. They also encountered difficulties in finding actors who were 5 feet 2 inches tall to portray Sontarans; neither Dan Starkey nor Chris Ryan was available for ‘The Sarah-Jane Adventures’, so they had to cast a slightly taller actor instead.
Looking back, I don’t think the actors who played the Sontarans in their early appearances were that short. Tennant’s explanation of how he learns his script and word pronunciation is simply a part of the learning process, and even prop guns are costly to throw on the floor. I’ve spent longer on this commentary simply because there was so much to take in.
In the sixth story, ‘The Doctor’s Daughter’, the audio commentary features Catherine Tate, Georgia Moffett, and music composer Ben Foster. He chips in occasionally, but really it is the giggling actresses who make for interesting chatter, and I’m not saying that in a demeaning way. In the original script, the Hath were going to have subtitles, but they weren’t used in the film presentation. Personally, I’m still puzzled about how the Hath who assisted Martha could have drowned despite having his own breathing apparatus.
The first day of filming was actually in the prison cell, which was cold. Moffett points out that a stunt lady gymnast called Belinda did the somersaults through the lasers, but her name doesn’t appear in the IMDb credits. I did a little more digging and still can’t find her surname. I think the funniest thing was the actresses swapping business gags and how it was going. The robin and the teleportation gags are worth getting this box set for.
The seventh story, ‘The Unicorn And The Wasp’, has actresses Felicity Kendal and Fenella Woolgar – she played Agatha Christie if you can’t place her – doing the audio commentary, which was recorded a year after its TV screening. Kendal admits she rarely watches anything she’s in, but both of them like ‘Doctor Who’ and praise David Tennant’s energy and memory skills. The outside filming has four sunshine days. For the others, it rained.
Watching again, from my perspective and without going too spoiler for those who haven’t seen this episode or forgotten, considering how they were all present when one of them turned into and then back as a wasp and some of those involved stayed in the room, how could they miss the transformation?
The other extra is 13 minutes of deleted scenes, mostly from ‘The Doctor’s Daughter’. Isn’t it about time Jenny returned, if only to meet the new regeneration and call her ‘Mum’?
With the fourth disc and the eighth episode, ‘Silence In The Library’, the audio commentary is with actor David Tennant, executive producer Julie Gardner and writer Steven Moffat, who was not yet the showrunner but knew it was about to happen. Tennant says that people will notice how many buttons he does up on his coat, as this is the first time he has all four done up for this story. Moffat also explains that this story came in short, and he had to flesh out some scenes.
It’s also obvious that none of them knew where River Song had come from, and Tennant thought she might be a future regeneration. It seems unlikely that the Doctor would ever portray a female character. There was some discussion about how actors learn their lines, and Tennant points out that Catherine Tate’s memory is photographic but forgets after she’s done a scene. There was also a lot of discussion about how noisy the sets were; the library is an actual decommissioned library in Swansea, and later dubbing is all the norm. There’s plenty here to digest beyond this.
The ninth episode, ‘Forest Of The Dead’, has an audio commentary from director Euros Lyn, script editor Eleanor Raynor and fashion designer Louise Page. It looks like an unusual combination, yet they present a different set of information. Page gives so much useful stuff about the costumes that those who cosplay can probably still use today. The spacesuits were actually Grand Prix driver suits decorated with blue cotton. Their boots came from Italy. She is always the first to see the actors after casting, arranging their costumes and noting any preferences. Donna Noble has ten costume changes for this episode.
Colin Salmon’s Dr Moon costume featured a lot of lunar symbolism, although I must admit that I did not spend much time examining him closely. She’s also only there for half the episode before she begins preparing for the next one. Her best story is about being under orders from producer Phil Collinson to cut five inches off David Tennant’s overcoat and then restitching it on Russell T. Davies’ orders. I’m focusing on Page’s work, but the other two also contributed significantly, and everyone praises young actor Eve Newton for her performance. I looked her up, and she didn’t do more after that.
The tenth episode, ‘Midnight’, has an audio commentary from actor David Tennant, writer Russell T Davies and a pregnant director, Alice Troughton, recorded before the episode was shown on TV. Tennant points out that he was able to watch the episode the night before, and it is one of his favourites. Catherine Tate was off filming the next episode, ‘Turn Left’, for a couple of weeks; hence, her absence from most of this episode. Davies explains he wrote the story over a weekend and wanted to strip the Doctor of his authority for a change. What was supposed to be a cheap episode wasn’t because the cast was there for the full fourteen days, including one day of rehearsal, as they had no characters’ backstories to work from. It was also recorded in chronological order for a change. There is so much to learn from this episode.
The eleventh episode, ‘Turn Left’, is actor-orientated with Catherine Tate, Jacqueline King and Bernard Crippins. I should point out by the time you get this far into the review that the length of each paragraph does not reflect the entire contents, just things I found interesting. King, for instance, is also a long-time fan, starting in the Troughton era. Tate has taken many driving lessons but still can’t get a driving licence. Billie Piper’s appearance in the episode was kept hidden from the press by having a different blonde actress in the part when they were given stills. There was some discussion about the long coats, which David Tennant had described to Tate as giving them ‘nappy legs’, but that sounds awfully rash. Oddly, none of them raised the question of how the bug on Tate’s back stayed in place when she changed clothes.
The twelfth episode, ‘The Stolen Earth’, has the return of writer Russell T Davies, executive producer Julie Gardner and that obscure actor, David Tennant, all three watching the episode sans special effects. Instead of just having panels saying what is going to be there, they have what Davies described as ‘toytown effects’, which gives the length for timing. Reading that, I wish they’d release a version showing this because it would be insightful. Tennant would also like to be the computer voice of Mr Smith in ‘The Sarah Jane Adventures’, having stood in for Alexander Armstrong when doing the read-through. There was also supposed to be a bigger assortment of aliens at the Shadow Proclamation, but there wasn’t the budget for it. Too much is a spoiler here.
The thirteenth episode, ‘Journey’s End’, has an audio commentary with writer Russell T Davies and actors David Tennant and Catherine Tate. Again, they were watching a pre-effects episode. Tennant makes a point that the floor of the TARDIS was like lying on razor blades when he was mostly nude. He distinguished between playing the two doctors as Doctor Blue and Doctor Brown, based on their suits, changing between them four or five times a day with his double.
There was also some discussion as to how many regenerations he went through, and he was the eleventh and twelfth regeneration, which is a valid point I hadn’t thought about before. Catherine Tate piped in because she shared a personality, and then she was Doctor Donna 12a. There’s a lot more than this I’ve written here, but it shows how far back the regenerating numbering was being thrown to the wind.
Two extras and worth your attention. The first is another ‘David Tennant Diaries’, running at 16 minutes. He explains he hadn’t had much to say of late, but with the last two episodes and so many returning characters and the Daleks, he wouldn’t miss recording it. A lot of it was late into the night, where at 4am in the morning we were having meals of pasties or pizza.
‘The Journey (So Far)’, running at 31 minutes, is mostly Russell T Davies but with pieces from executive producers Julia Gardener and Phil Collinson with David Tennant. Essentially, this is a look at the 55 episodes so far. As Davies points out, he is also moving on, having taken so many chances with the show and kept its audience. Davies loves the Daleks, although I have to confess I hadn’t spotted the change in one of their arms. Looking again, not all the Daleks had this new arm.
The sixth disc is devoted to the fourteen Doctor Who Confidential cutdowns from Tennant’s last story. The Christmas Special runs at 15 minutes, but the rest are 8 minutes each, and I have covered them before. I’m surprised they didn’t intersperse it on the other discs, so it feels more like a filler to fill a sixth disc slot.
My noting when the audio commentaries were made isn’t something I’ve seen with other shows but shows how much was/is done ahead of time. With production and cast nearby, it seemed a convenient time to record while their memories were fresh.
I assume that there are some of you who haven’t picked up on the box sets or even watched the extras. The only delay on my part was picking up and reviewing the early ‘Doctor Who’ stories before I got onto the new series. It’s still hard to believe 17 years have gone by. As you can tell from my enthusiasm for the extras, this has made for an interesting but exhausting viewing.
GF Willmetts
October 2025
(pub: BBC, 2014. 6 DVD disks, 681 minutes, 14 * 55 minute episodes give or take with extras. Price: varies. ASIN: BBCDVD3968)
